Have a Smoke?

Have a Smoke?

Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar


No, thank you. I don't smoke. God knows I have cursed smokers, especially those who choose to exercise their right in parks around infants and children or on cool, windy mornings on vacation in the mountains. In fact, I hate smoke, and not just from cigarettes, beedis or cigars. And there is no dearth of smoke and odors around, thanks to kitchen fires, garbage fire, 'dry leaves in the garden' fire, 'bhogi' fire, 'tar for cable repair' fire, and last but not least, 'keep me warm' fires on cold mornings that are fast disappearing from many parts of the country (any guesses why?). There was a time when I wondered incredulously at the stupidity of smokers who did themselves in by inhaling proven carcinogenic tars. I also had less than complementary words to say about governments that permitted import of foreign cigarettes or the operation of cigarette factories at home. As I grew up though, I realized that genetic health proclivities, behavioral and other environmental factors had as much to do with smoking risks as did the number and type of smoke (riding behind a black-smoke belching 4x4 or breathing smoke from burning tyres couldn't be any worse than a puff from a filter cigarette?). And that so many of our poor make their livelihood serving this industry. So much so, it no longer hurts my conscience to invest in mutual funds that own shares in cigarette companies.

But the story doesn't end there. India is a land of people. A billion people who must be sheltered, fed, clothed....and, yes, who must enjoy a smoke once in a while. Their choices impacts on public health and could make or break the fortunes of companies (and their employees and suppliers). Now, the Government (well, atleast the official in the public health department reporting to Chidambaram) is in a dilemma. If it promotes safer smoking, it hurts the farmers who live by cultivating, processing and rolling tendu leaves in to beedis. If it seeks to reduce smokers by drastically raising taxes, it risks the contraction of firms that make up the Indian GDP and the stock market, and leaves their employees and suppliers in the lurch. In doing so, it ups the ante against Indian cigarette firms who must contend with legal and contraband foreign cigarettes that offer superior smoking experience at lower risk. (who, if I am not wrong, also happen to be the lowest cost producers worldwide at the scale they operate). That only plays in to the economic trend of the day as the lower- and middle-class smokers switch to cigarettes from beedis and foreign cigarettes from Indian ones as their wallets bulge with higher incomes.

Thankfully, we are also turning more literate and more 'educated'. Smoking is discouraged, and smokers are provided smoking rooms. Smoke-free offices and zones are a start. Look at Chandigarh. It is already a smoke-free city (tyre burning is still permitted though!). Where does that leave the tendu farmers who already live a hand-to-mouth existence? Do they enjoy Dire Straits in Hotel California after enriching the cigar-smoking owner of the cigarette company for decades? If I were the agriculture minister, I would warn tendu farmers of what's coming. Perhaps they are best served by hedging their risks and moving to an alternate crop, leasing land to a wind tower, or for the cultivation of bio-fuel plants (unless ofcourse, a business house wants to start an SEZ in the hinterlands to export software or whatever).

Ofcourse they could join me and and be a part of a $10 billion group settlement awarded to passive smokers!